[Reece Morgan]

Just curious about whether or not you guys think it's worth getting into web development if your already a qualified network engineer. I'm not a terribly artsy type just trying to think about my career progression ideas. I quit my job a while back and went freelance/retired (which is great!) and starting to get a bit bored.. Not sure if web development is the right step or not.

Note that I don't want to be a full-time web developer (or a full-time anything for that matter, retired life is great), I'm just thinking that learning some web dev skills could help fluff up the ol' resume and get me some higher $/hr jobs. I don't want to spend a few months learning some new skills only to find out that my pay is the same/less than if I'd just stuck to being a network engineer.

[buur]

Kind of a dead-end discussion to me. All comes down to you, why you want to learn web development etc.
Knowledge in any aspect can't go wrong.

[Hapi]

Something that might be benefically to you would be Python - if you don't know it already. It can be used for automation to help with your job already, it has libraries for everything and can be used for web dev and it would look good on your CV as it's a pretty in-demand language. It's also pretty easy to learn and there are lots of free courses online.

Have you looked into Network Penetration? Some places offer $80.00 a day, not sure what you currently earn but that's not bad.

[Rushax]

I wouldn't say learn it if the only expectation of doing so is to earn more money. I just think it gives off a better persona of yourself to employers if you have a wider variety of skillsets, whether that's specialized in a subject(s) or just a fair idea of some others as well.
If you're looking for the extra higher pay-gap jobs, security is where the money is at I would say. However I think a lot require at least some Cisco certifications such as CCNA. I started to take this in my second year of university as an on the side but I got so bogged down with work and I didn't want to miss out on getting top grades for my other core subjects.

Alternatively, SEO is a biiiig money maker, with people earning $1k-$3k / mo with each client and having 15+ and then just outsourcing most areas of the dreary, dull work to VA's. Depends really what path you want to go in terms of working for yourself or as employee and whether you want it to be techy/non-techy.

Hope this helps & goodluck.

[Reece Morgan]

Something that might be benefically to you would be Python - if you don't know it already. It can be used for automation to help with your job already, it has libraries for everything and can be used for web dev and it would look good on your CV as it's a pretty in-demand language. It's also pretty easy to learn and there are lots of free courses online.

Have you looked into Network Penetration? Some places offer $80.00 a day, not sure what you currently earn but that's not bad.

I earn way above $80.00 a day (~£250-£300/day). I'm currently in my late thirties and 'semi'-retired. Python was the first language I learned when I joined the IT field.

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I wouldn't say learn it if the only expectation of doing so is to earn more money. I just think it gives off a better persona of yourself to employers if you have a wider variety of skillsets, whether that's specialized in a subject(s) or just a fair idea of some others as well.
If you're looking for the extra higher pay-gap jobs, security is where the money is at I would say. However I think a lot require at least some Cisco certifications such as CCNA. I started to take this in my second year of university as an on the side but I got so bogged down with work and I didn't want to miss out on getting top grades for my other core subjects.

Alternatively, SEO is a biiiig money maker, with people earning $1k-$3k / mo with each client and having 15+ and then just outsourcing most areas of the dreary, dull work to VA's. Depends really what path you want to go in terms of working for yourself or as employee and whether you want it to be techy/non-techy.

Hope this helps & goodluck.

I'm definitely interested in working for myself, and have been for the past year (although I started freelancing two years ago while still working). My CCNA expired about 6 months ago, although I'm fairly confident I could easily pass it when/if I went to renew it.

SEO is definitely something I'm looking at seriously although surely you'd need some kind of web development skills to get into it? Currently my web dev skills are just about good enough to delegate the work to somebody else.

Some advice for you though in regards to the CCNA, it's really not difficult. I managed to pass it simply by reading a study guide about a week before taking the test (took about 4-5 hours to get through the entire book). Here's a link to the book I used: amazon. Bear in mind though that I'd already completed my CompSci degree so I had a fair bit of background knowledge going into it. Here in the UK it's a highly valued and sought after qualification, I'd even go so far as to say that having the CCNA was worth more than my degree.

[#Skyline]

From personal experience, networking was a huge benefit for me in relation to learning web programming.